Monday February 26, 1996
Woke up at a fairly early hour (around 6am) this morning to begin our big day. The day was gloomy and cold, but we pressed on to the Champs Du Mars and the Eiffel Tower. We took the Metro out there to get some pictures of the Eiffel Tower. Gary and Wesley decided to come with us to Disneyland Paris instead of touring Paris.
After several pictures, it was back to the Metro. The route to Disneyland Paris on the RER is a simple one, but from where we were it involved a couple of transfers until we were on the actual RER line. The wait was almost unbearable, but finally we pulled into the Disneyland Paris station right before the gates were opened.
It is difficult to describe how I felt about the whole day, because it was so weird actually being somewhere that I had dreamed of being so often. The park did not disappoint either. After Walt Disney World and Disneyland, DLP is definitely the cleanest and friendliest park of them all. because the weather was cold and drizzling by this time, the crowds were non-existent. I think the longest we had to wait was about 20 minutes for Space Mountain and the Indiana Jones roller coaster. Space Mountain is by far the best at Disneyland Paris than the other parks. It has loops and a corkscrew and a bitchin’ soundtrack similar to the one by Dirk Dale that was later added to SM at Disneyland in Anaheim.
Big Thunder Mountain was also tons of fun. It is placed in the location of Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer Island, and for the coaster to get to the ride from the station, you travel under the Rivers of America. Phantom Manor was pretty blase. I enjoyed the staging of the ride, but the French sounded awkward, and I just tried to remember the regular Haunted Mansion spiel while I was on the ride.
Pirates of the Caribbean was also nothing big, primarily the same as the one in WDW, just with all the different sections scrambled and no big drop. The Indiana Jones Roller coaster was pretty cool, but not worth the wait. An interesting side note, some German kid decided that the bathroom was too far away and decided to go behind Indy’s jeep and take a whizz. Another interesting notion is that some tourists didn’t comprehend the whole “wait-your-turn-in-line” philosophy and proceeded to push their way through the entire line to the front.
Another highlight of the park was Alice’s Curious Labyrinth. It is basically a hedge maze, but I think we all cracked up and had the most fun goofing off in the maze. After leaving the park, we walked around Festival Disney (as it was called then) and looked in some of the stores and had some grub.
As darkness set in, we trooped back onto the RER train and headed back to Paris to catch our Eurostar back to London. By the time we managed to get back to the Hotel, we were exhausted. Right before I went to bed, I discovered that my flannel pj bottoms were left at the New Candide Hotel in Paris along with my Levi’s 501 T-Shirt. For a time I thought I lost my Snoqualime Pen, but I was relieved to find it later.
